Saiqa Ali, the woman who allegedly said that Donald Trump is ‘owned by Jews’, became a Lambeth councillor yesterday, elected under the Green party banner. Like so many celebrated liberation activists before her, Cllr Ali has gone from police custody – she was arrested last week for stirring up racial hatred – to public office, though her story may not end quite as happily as, say, Nelson Mandela’s. But then Mandela never allegedly posted pictures of the Earth crushed by a giant serpent with the Star of David on its skin, or allegedly wrote ‘Long live the resistance’ next to a picture of what looks like a Hamas terrorist. Or, for that matter, allegedly opined that ‘England has a government overrepresented with Zionists Jews’.

Ali’s racism, revealed by The Spectator, did cost her some support – she got a third fewer votes than the top-ranked Green candidate in her ward – but, as we predicted, with the Green label by her name she was always likely to win what was the party’s best area. A second noxious Green candidate exposed by The Spectator, Ifhat Shaheen (she justified 7 October as an act of self-defence, accused Israel of harvesting Palestinian organs and asked whether ‘Zionists’ were behind Tommy Robinson) is also a councillor this morning in Hackney.

The continued presence of the ‘Greenshirt’ wing would make cooperation with a liberal party difficult

The continued presence of the ‘Greenshirt’ wing would make cooperation with a liberal party difficult

At the time of writing we still don’t know the fate of Lambeth’s other arrested Green........

© The Spectator